摘要：It is well known that at least 20 million of Indonesia’s people were directly or indirectly affected by the 1997/1998 Indonesian forest and field fires, where 10-11 million acres of forest and fields burnt. Haze contains many air pollutants such as CO, CO2, SO2, NO(x) and NH4. These and bacteria caused thousands of people in Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, and Central, West and East Kalimantan to be hospitalized, with 527 fatalities in a mere three months. It has also been found that 80% to 90 % of the Indonesian fires resulted from estate crops and industrial forest plantations as the result of actions by companies and communities. The communities claimed that using fire in land preparation is cheap, easy and quick, but unfortunately the facts are not clear from much scientific evidence. In order to determine the impact of peatland fires started by communities during land preparation, an experimental land preparation using fire in peatland was conducted in a village area in Pelalawan, Riau Province, Sumatra. The main objective of the research was to evaluate the response of the ecosystem, including greenhouse gas emissions released by the fires used for land preparation for agricultural purposes by the community. The results of the research show that factors such as fuel load, fuel bed depth and water table performance are critical to the degree of peat destruction and ultimately affect green house gas (GHG) emissions released during burning.
